All in Good Fun
by OffCenterFold
Summary: Hiro has a plan to shake things up for his best friend - just a little prank. But who's really going to be the one to get shaken up? Here's to good friends! SS Gift for Iridescent Swan.


**All in Good Fun**

Lillian would help him, he was sure. Working out the kinks in his plan had taken weeks of thought. Now all that remained was to make the arrangements… Which meant talking to Lillian.

Hiro was nervous about that, not because talking to Lillian was difficult in and of itself – quite to the contrary! Rather, he suspected that she might not approve. She had made no secret of her interest in the tall horseman, though as far as Hiro could tell, his best friend had absolutely no awareness of the attraction on her part. To make matters worse, Hiro had to admit to himself that he had begun enjoying Lillian's company far more than he felt he had any right to do. The girl had been in town for a couple of years and she seemed to be friendly with everyone in Konohana – and in Bluebell! Hiro wasn't sure how she'd pulled it off. He suspected it was simply due to the fact that she was such a sweet, generous person, who always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. She was always willing to help a friend in need, and it seemed she considered everyone a friend.

That, perhaps, would be the key to convincing her to assist him in this endeavor.

When she asked him for a date, he decided to use the opportunity to bring it up to her during a lull in the conversation after she had related to him an anecdote on the antics of her alpacas, making him laugh as few people could.

"Lillian, may I ask a favor of you?"

"Sure, Hiro. What's up?"

"I'd like your assistance with a certain project, but it is rather involved, and I'd like to keep it quiet. You see, I…" Hiro cleared his throat, feeling his face warm. "I wish to play a prank on Kana."

Lillian was surprised. "Really? You? But Hiro… That's so unlike you!"

Hiro nodded. "I know. You are aware, I am sure, that I aspire to be more like him in certain respects. He often teases me, to be succinct, about being a "stick in the mud." Hiro smiled a bit ruefully. "In fact, he himself gave me the idea. He had been relating some of the stories of his youth. He is a responsible man now, but he was quite the rascal in his younger days."

"Younger days?" Lillian said with an arched eyebrow. "Hiro, we're all barely into our twenties."

The young doctor's assistant gestured in amused exasperation. "You understand my intent."

Lillian smiled, a warm light in her eyes. "I know. I was teasing, Hiro."

"Oh. Of course." Hiro blushed. "I was aware of that."

"Sure," Lillian giggled.

"Anyway, my intention was to switch out the horses in Kana's barn for chickens. I postulate that his visits to Bluebell allow sufficient time for the switch to be made, provided that the chickens themselves and a safe place for the horses could be obtained."

"So you want to borrow my chickens and barn," Lillian said teasingly.

Hiro brightened. "Would you be amenable?"

Lillian bit her lip, appearing to think about it. "I don't know… I don't want to do anything that would really upset him."

"Nor would I!" Hiro was distressed by the very thought. Kana _was_ his best friend, after all, and he respected the taller man greatly for far deeper reasons than the horseman's impressively manly physique. Hiro was envious of many things about his friend, but none so much as that, especially since… But that was irrelevant. He was certainly not about to try to assign feelings to anyone, and he refused to relinquish hope that perhaps someday, he might measure up in Lillian's eyes to be Kana's equal, at the very least…

Shaking his head to clear it from the distracting thoughts, he sighed. "I would never consider anything that would cause him genuine distress. I only wish to show him that I am not quite so…" Hiro struggled to find a suitable word.

"Boring?" Lillian said with a grin. "Let me get this straight. The guy who talks about nothing but horses has accused _you _of being boring?"

He flinched. "Well, to be blunt, yes." He did not even try to hide his distress.

"Oh come on, Hiro. You're not boring at all! Well, you're a bit quiet, but not _boring_." She offered a smile, which he returned uncertainly. "So… Switching out his horses for chickens, huh? Good thing he likes birds. When are we doing this?"

Hiro blinked, a bit taken aback at her sudden acceptance of his proposal. "I hadn't planned a particular time. He goes to Bluebell several times a week, so I thought of doing it on one of those afternoons. If your barn is available to shelter the horses for an afternoon, we might arrange it on any of those days."

Lillian nodded. "I don't know why, but I like it," she grinned again. Hiro's heart sped up with excitement. "Let's do this thing!"

They set a date for the following week. Hiro would keep a lookout and throw a pebble at Lillian's window to let her know that the coast was clear.

When the day came, Hiro could hardly contain himself. Kana had left for Bluebell nearly half an hour earlier; he had given the agreed upon signal and Lillian should show up at the horse farm with her chickens at any moment. He paced restlessly, twisting his stethoscope around his fingers and trying not to unnerve the horses, who were already eyeing him warily. Though they were used to him and normally ignored him, his nervousness was communicating itself to them and they were aware that something was up. Hayate in particular was watching him with a particularly irritated expression, although how he could read the horse's feelings, Hiro wasn't sure.

When the young woman showed up, he found himself letting out a breath he hadn't quite realized he was holding. Hiro waved in greeting and Lillian nodded, her arms laden with four chickens. "Hey! I brought over my birds. If you could hold them while I hop the fence…?"

Hiro looked at her blankly, not being as familiar with farm animals as she was. He had no idea how he was going to take four large and fidgety chickens from her at once. Then a thought occurred to him. "Why don't you just set them down in the paddock before entering?"

"Oh sure," Lillian said with a wry grin. "Go ahead and be all logical and stuff."

In that moment, she reminded him of Kana, and he couldn't quite think why. Shaking his head, he simply smiled. "If you insist!"

She shook her head. "At least we'll only have to chase them around the paddock, instead of the entire town." Then she laughed, as he had hoped, and he watched her set the birds down. "It's going to be fun keeping them in the paddock while we take the horses out," she said with a rueful sigh of her own as she swung her leg over the fence. "We should have done this the other way around. No matter!" Her expression brightened. "We'll just take the horses out all at once. If we each lead two of them, we can get them to the barn at once, and the birds should be fine alone for that long, even in a strange place."

Hiro was slightly startled to hear the note of concern in her voice; he'd never ascribed much personality to chickens, much less worried about the things that might distress them, but it was clear that Lillian had. He could understand Kana's passion for horses, as the large animals had a definite air of intelligence, but Hiro had always believed that chickens were particularly stupid birds. He'd assumed, as most people probably did, that chickens were essentially creatures of instinct.

Whether or not Lillian's concerns were grounded, however, he had to respect that they were real, so he agreed to her plan.

It took some doing. The horses were reluctant to leave the comfort and safety of their barn without Kana's reassuring presence. The chickens kept trying to escape, one even managing to get up on the back of one of the horses as it was led out of the paddock, and would not relinquish its perch. Then one of the horses balked altogether and would not move until Lillian lured it with a carrot and soft words. Then two of the chickens started squabbling and the farmer had to separate them…

All in all, it took nearly an hour to get the horses out of the paddock, and another hour and forty minutes to get them settled into Lillian's barn. If Hayate had not already taken a liking to her, none of them would have gone at all. By the time Hiro and Lillian returned to hide in the bushes near Kana's barn, Hiro was exhausted and fervently wished that Kana would return soon so he could get this over with.

"This was not, perhaps, my best idea," he sighed as Lillian shifted into a more comfortable position beside him. The sounds of Konohana were muted, and the light filtered down green and soft. Hiro was entirely too aware of her nearness, and fought to keep his composure.

"Well, maybe not, but if it works it will be fun!" She shot him a bright smile in the semidarkness, and he reached for it, pulling the strength of her positive attitude into himself and inhaling it with the scent of pine and horse farm.

The latter, he regretted, but it did help him to calm down and smile again.

They sat and talked softly of inconsequential things, Hiro rambling on happily about the latest advances in one or another of his medical journals, in return for which Lillian would regale him with the latest antics of the animals on her farm, or Rahi's latest prank on her – and her revenge for it.

He had lost track of time when they heard a neigh coming from Lillian's farm. Hiro froze. "What if he's coming, what if he heard that?" Hiro whispered, suddenly convinced that the jig was up before it had begun.

"Maybe he'll think that's my Lightning," Lillian whispered back.

Hiro found himself reaching for her hand, and she squeezed back with a conspiratorial grin. "Relax. It's all in good fun. No one's getting hurt, and we'll all have a good story to tell."

Hiro nodded. "You're right," he whispered back.

"So stop worrying." She squeezed his hand again, and he returned the favor. He was gratified when she did not let go. Somehow, that made it easier not to worry.

The early autumn air was brisk and refreshing and carried sound well despite the muffling effect of the trees in which they hid and the needles beneath their feet; before very long, they heard Kana whistling a jaunty tune as he sauntered out of the tunnel and back toward his own farm.

"Now he's coming!" Lillian whispered, squeezing Hiro's hand yet again in her excitement.

Hiro found it hard to breathe, and was momentarily uncertain if it was because of the woman's closeness or the prank. His inclination was to believe that both factors were at fault.

The whistling grew closer, and they could hear Kana's footsteps on the packed dirt of the road as he approached the barn. "Hayate!" he sang out, "I'm back!"

An answering neigh came faintly from Lillian's farm. She and Hiro clutched at each other instinctively, holding their respective breaths.

"Hayate?" Kana's voice sounded mildly concerned, and they heard him as he entered the barn, calling once more for his most beloved horse. "Haya-aaahhh!" Now they heard him pelting out of the barn. "Someone help! Please someone help me!"

Hiro started to move forward, operating on instinct; Lillian's grip on his hand restrained him. "Wait," she whispered.

Dirk heard the yell and emerged from his house, looking confused. "Kana? What's up?"

The muscular youth ran up to Dirk and grabbed him by the lapels, a look of pure panic on his face. "Dirk! Dirk! My horses are chickens!"

Dirk tried to disentangle himself from the taller man. "Um, Kana, they're farm horses. I didn't think their courage mattered that much…"

"No no no! They're actual chickens! Like, bock bock egg laying chickens!"

"Bock… bock?" Dirk's tone was somewhere between sheer incredulity and uncertain understanding. "Show me."

Hiro looked uncertainly at Lillian, but the farmer was biting her lip and struggling not to laugh. "Oh come on, Hiro, you can't possibly think he really…" she whispered.

"They're CHIIIIICKEEENNNNNS!" came Kana's despairing wail, unknowingly cutting her off as he dragged Dirk to the doorway of the barn. "Look!"

"Holy Harvest Goddess! Those ARE chickens! But… But how!? There's no way… But they're chickens!"

"I know they're chickens!" Kana yelled. "Make them turn back!"

"How am I supposed to do that?" Dirk yelled, indignant in his turn. "I don't even know how they got to be chickens in the first place!"

Hiro couldn't take it anymore. For one thing, he was afraid that Lillian would suffocate herself trying to hold back her laughter, and for another, well, he didn't THINK Kana was quite that obtuse, but it troubled him to see his cool, lighthearted friend for whom he had such great respect in such a state.

"That would be my doing," he said as he emerged from the pine stand, looking sheepish.

"WHAAAAT!?" Kana looked at Hiro, wild-eyed. "But how… How did you…"

Hiro didn't notice as he turned his face away, but Kana was having a hard time maintaining his panicky expression. Dirk did notice, and walked away altogether.

"It was… supposed to be a prank." Hiro looked more miserable with every word. "I thought it might be amusing to make you believe your horses had been magically transformed. My intention was never to distress you…"

Lillian poked her head out from the bushes and waved, not bothering to hide her grin. Kana winked at her while Hiro remained unable to meet his gaze.

"I helped," she chirped. Stepping out of the trees, she looked at Kana's barely suppressed mirth and Hiro's increasing dismay. Unable to contain herself any longer, Lillian dissolved into helpless giggles at that moment. Kana joined her in full-bellied laughter immediately, causing Hiro to look up at his friend in consternation.

"Oh come on, Hiro," Kana pulled the doctor to him in a one-armed hug. Leaving his arm around Hiro's shoulders, the horseman shook his head. "Man, you're too funny. It was a good try. But I heard Hayate's neigh from Lillian's farm," he answered the unspoken question in Hiro's confused, still unhappy eyes.

"Then you're not mad?"

"'Course not!" Kana laughed again. "It's actually cool to see you tryin' to loosen up a bit. But you know what? You're my best bro because I like you the way you are. To prove it, lemme give you a gift in return."

Lillian smiled fondly at the two "best bros" as Hiro laughingly tried to escape Kana's "return gift" of a noogie. She invited them both to dinner – AFTER they helped her return the birds and horses to their proper homes. She and Kana laughed at Hiro's dismay and told him not to worry; they would permit him to hold the gates open for them.

"You're too kind," he mumbled with some disgruntlement.

The task did not take long, however, with the three of them working in tandem. The birds were only too happy to return to their own familiar pen, and the horses were practically ecstatic to be back in their home barn. Hayate in particular made her sentiments about Lillian's farm known in no uncertain terms. Kana laughed even as he apologized and promised to clean the barn for Lillian for a week, "with Hiro's help, of course, since this was his idea to start with."

"Oh, come on, lay off poor Hiro. I'm the one who encouraged him."

"No. I'll help too," Hiro said, not questioning his own reasoning for volunteering. "The three of us working together can achieve more in less time. Besides, it might be entertaining!" He put a brave face on.

"Cleaning the barn? Entertaining?" Lillian looked at the young doctor incredulously.

"Okay. The prank was one thing, but have you been trying some new medicines again or something?" Kana looked oddly at his friend. "Even I've never met a barn that was fun to clean."

Hiro shrugged. "It isn't the cleaning that makes it pleasurable. It's the company."

Kana nodded. "Now that, I can get behind."

"Me too." Inserting herself between them, Lillian threw an arm around each man's waist. "Let's go eat."

Kana slung an arm around Lillian's shoulders, Hiro put his own around her waist, and thus linked, the three walked to the café, laughing as they tried without much success to skip in synch.

.oO-fin-Oo.


End file.
